A large canvas by the Brescian painter Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo, dated to about 1510, showing the prophet Elijah seated in a rocky, wooded landscape by the brook Cherith, a raven descending toward him with food in its beak. The episode comes from the First Book of Kings, in which Elijah, having pronounced a drought upon Israel and fleeing the wrath of King Ahab, is sustained in hiding by ravens that God commands to bring him bread and meat morning and evening. Savoldo, known for his atmospheric handling of landscape and light, sets the encounter within a broad naturalistic setting rather than a symbolic backdrop, giving the miraculous provision a grounded, observed quality typical of his mature style. The canvas entered the National Gallery of Art through the Samuel H. Kress Collection, accession 1961.9.35.
Facts
Origins
Attributed ToGiovanni Girolamo Savoldo, a painter active chiefly in Brescia and later Venice, known for his atmospheric handling of landscape and light. 1 Physical Form
MediumOil on panel transferred to canvas, Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo, c. 1510, National Gallery of Art, Washington 1 Medium (class) Connections
Belongs to Tradition
Source Elijah Fed by the Raven, File Record (Wikimedia Commons, NGA 1961.9.35)
Depicts
The painting's sole subject, named directly in both records' titles, shown receiving food from the raven as told in the First Book of Kings.
Source Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo, Elijah Fed by the Raven (Wikipedia)
Additional Source Elijah Fed by the Raven, File Record (Wikimedia Commons, NGA 1961.9.35)
In the Other Atlases
Authored By
Also in Arts and Music Atlas: the author of this subject.
Sources
1. Elijah Fed by the Raven, File Record (Wikimedia Commons, NGA 1961.9.35)
Wikimedia Commonscatalogue record, medium/object-type description
A large canvas by the Brescian painter Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo, dated to about 1510, showing the prophet Elijah seated in a rocky, wooded landscape by the brook Cherith, a raven descending toward him with food in its beak.
Depicts: Elijah
Elijah Fed by the Raven, Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo, c. 1510, National Gallery of Art, Washington, accession 1961.9.35, Samuel H. Kress Collection.
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